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...maybe this is an old topic, but i'm new to this site...does anyone have any good/bad/ugly catholic school memories??! it wasn't until i transferred to public school in grade 9 that i realized everyone did NOT go to confession!!

- leta 1962

Replies:

1. Re: catholic school
memories - R.Ranke
1954

-and
it wasn't until I started public school in grade 9 that
I saw that no one had to dress up all the time for
classes and there were no uniforms.

The Catholic
school I went to from grades 1 through 8 had religon as
the first lesson every day.For the first few years,the
teachers would tell us stories about God and
Jesus...or,when it was time for First Communion,we'd
have to learn the Ten Comandments,the Sacraments,etc.Our
school was right next to the church,and we would have to
go to church once a week during schooldays-or at
times,every day.

Of the 16 different teachers I
had those years,10 of them were nuns.There were 5
different principals,all nuns.

We also learned
that the Roman Catholic Religon is the true religon.

1.Bring on the Levi's and the peasant
blouses ! - AstringOfPoloponies
1959

I hear
ya ! In ninth grade, I wore Levi jeans and army pants
every day ! Talk about letting loose !Even platform
shoes ~ it was 1973.

The nun principles we had
were cool - we had Sr. Assumpta, than Sister Edyth and
than Sister Christine. Christine was nice to me but she
used to go into a classroom and tell the kids that if
they didn't shut up, she would kill them !LOL.

2.Re: catholic school
memories - Tom N
1961

Welcome to the site, leta...my name is Tom, and
I'm a fellow survivor! I attended Catholic schools from
1st grade through high school. Let's see...

GOOD
MEMORIES:

Sister Jean Louise, my second grade
teacher. A veritable saint who set the standard for
"nice" nuns that few I had after could match.

Christmas-time...the only time I really WANTED
to go to mass.

The Stations of the Cross...Most
of the kids hated this ritual, but I found it
fascinating.

Playing soccer, kick-ball, softball,
and "Maul ball" on the huge field we had behind my
elementary school.

BAD:

Sister Anacetus,
my 8th grade teacher. Mean, nasty, vindictive, and older
than dirt. We used to joke that she served drinks at the
Last Supper. An "old school" nun, she wore the full
habit, so that the only bare skin of her's you ever saw
were here hands and her face...which was probably a
blessing. Fond of hair-pulling and knuckle-rapping, I
once saw her actually break a kid's
fingers.

Confession...was anything more
terrifying?

Uniforms...In elementary school:
white shirt, charcoal-grey "slacks", and a too-wide,
ugly-@ss striped grey necktie. But even that was better
than 1st & 2nd grade, where the boys had to wear
bright red bow-ties.

UGLY:

See Sister
Anacetus

1. Oooooo, Tom ! - AstringOfPoloponies
1959

Sister
Anacetus ~ even the name sounds lethal ! LOL
!

The weirdest one at my school was a sister
Emily. I never had her, but my sister did. One day (this
was when the Pill first became widely used) Sr. Emily
made the class (my sister's class) each tell her what
form of birth control their parents used ! This was in
the eighth grade. My sister just said she didn't know,
but my mother threw a fit. This nun also didn't allow
the boys boots next to the girl's boots lined up in the
hall way - they had to be separate and far from each
other. She was a real character.

1. Re: Oooooo, Tom ! -
Wotan
1966

"Oh
yes, Tom! Right there! OHHHH YES!"Hee heeI
couldn't resist.

I can't believe I never equated
Catholic nuns with Emporer Palpatine before.

"I'm
looking forward to completing your catechism, young
Skywalker."

"If you will not learn, you will be
DETAINED!"

I had a few nuns that fit the
crotchety profile, but by and large it was the lay
teachers who were poopy. They made my sentence at St.
Retard's (St. Rita's) a living hell.

But I'll
dwell on the sunnier side. There was Brother Bechner at
Bishop Kearney HS. He just plain rocked! Not only was he
a superlative English teacher, but he related well to
students and was adept at telling off color
jokes.

I missed a bunch of school due to illness
and had to make up math tests after school in Bro.
Bechner's room. I was a Freshman sitting in the back of
the room taking my math test and he was up front with a
bunch of seniors just chewing the fat and
joking:

"...then there's the book 'A Thousand
Haiwaiian Children by Kamanahwannaleya.'"

"I want
this guy as my teacher," I thought.

I got my wish
my Junior and Senior year. Bro Bechner was 6'2 or 3 and
just plain big, not fat but big. I only saw him angry a
few times. You did NOT want to be on the business end of
his wrath!

Our principal, the overweight Bro
Walsh, would teach religion in order to hear himself
talk dirty. One day after there'd been a tremor in the
Rochester area early that morning Bro. Walsh in his
chubby glory decided to pick on red haired Paul Hamilton
as we were all filing into religion class:

"So,
uh Paul, I felt the tremors this morning. Were you
jerking off?"

"No Brother, I thought you were
doing jumping jacks."

Brother Walsh just had to
concede defeat right there and stood with his lips
moving slightly. It was a Kodak
moment.

3. Re: catholic school
memories - AstringOfPoloponies
1959

I have
a million of them . I too went from K - 8 to a catholic
school (that was 1964 - 1973 when there were no child
protection laws !)

Talk about confession...this
memory always cracks me up ! We had rehersals for
confession in the second grade. My best friend at that
time, Karen T., just didn't seem to get it, though. When
it was her turn to go through the motions of confession,
she spoke out loudly in the confessional. We were all
laughing hysterically. She said, "Bless me father, for I
have sinned, this is my first confession. I killed seven
ants. I stepped on my cat's tail." We all were saying
stuff like we lied or disobeyed our parents - the
standard fare... but with Karen yelling her confession
and the colorful sins , we just laughed a
lot.

Oh, I hated The Stations of the Cross ! I
remember feeling so upset and sad having to go through
each step, almost like re-living it. It was too dark for
a child, I believe and repetitive.

The best
things were when we did shows,plays, singing.And the
candy we had to sell back in those days was so
delicious. Turtles, peanut brittle in cans , a large
chocolate Easter egg with coconut in the middle. Did you
also have butter lambs ? The nuns made butter in the
shape of lambs at Easter time.

1. "Ladies and gentlemen, step right
up..." - Wotan
1966

"..and
see the HUMAN SINNERS! Only .25, the quarter part of a
dollar! Thrill as a ten year old unburdens his soul from
his crimes against humanity. Gasp as you hear their
confessing to using the 'f-word'. Choke in horror as
they describe the discovery of the intimate side of
their gender!"

I preferred the face to face
more relaxed confession as opposed to the confessional.
I once confessed to Fr. Murphy in one of those "telesin
booths" and he was like a rabid Pit Bull on the other
side of the screen.

"Forgive me Father, for I
have sinned."

" *rowwwr* *snap* How long since
your last *RAAARK* *snap-snap* *growl* confession?
*snort*"

The whole confession was like that. I'm
sure I got absolution just by kneeling through that. At
the very least I was traumatized!

I hated The
Stations of the Cross because they took so long. In
kindergarten we did them at the end of the day while
kneeling on our little carpet shards. Many times I could
see my mom sitting across the street in her VW Bug
waiting for me. I was always afraid she was going to
leave me because the Stations were taking
forever!

4. Re: catholic school
memories - Tyler77
1972

Sister
Catherine would get on the PA system at the start of
each day and rattle off events that were happening at
the school (bake sales, communion practice), and would
start by hollering "SIT AT YOUR DESKS! FEET FLAT ON THE
FLOOR!" One time during a snowstorm she announced over
the intercom that school would be dismissed early, and
of course, everyone began cheering...she then hollered
"SHUTUP..I CAN HEAR YOU CHEERING!" Sister Margaret
taught science, and once she admitted that when she was
in college, she left in the middle of an experiment, and
went to a bar and got drunk like no one's business. Then
she returned to the lab and dumped her experiment down
the drain.

I went
to Catholic school from kindergarten to grade 10. In
elementary school we did not have to wear uniforms, but
we couldn't wear jeans. The principal's name was Sister
Conception - pause while you go into convulsions of
laughter over that :) I remember in Grade 6 a bunch of
my classmates were mad at one of the boys who was always
teasing us and challenged him to a fight. I got picked
to go fight him after school. After we each took a
couple of swings at each other (none connected 'cause he
was basically too nice to hit a girl) someone yelled
"Here comes Sister Conception" so we took off. The next
day, she came on the intercom and asked (in a very Irish
accent) that the students who had been involved in the
fight last night come to here office. When Danny stood
up, the class cheered. When I stood up, they were in
shock. Then, when we got to the office and she asked me
what happened, I told her my friends talked me into it
and she called me a "spineless jellyfish". At that
point, Danny (who had been in the fight too) stood up
for me and called her a jacka*s right to her face.
Everyone was in shock that he actually said that, and he
was the school hero for months afterward. We eventually
became really good friends for the rest of elementary
school.Sorry about the long post, but that is my
most vivid memory.

6. Re: catholic school
memories - Christina
1982

I went
to catholic school from Pre-Kindergarten to the 10th
grade. The years from Pre-K to the 6th were pretty good
years. My class got a long with each other pretty well.
I have a lot of good memories from those years. They
took us to pretty cool places on field trips-one
included going to the Bronx Zoo. Seventh grade and
eighth grade were bad. Without going into details,in 7th
grade my supposed best friend stabbed me in the back and
managed to turned most of the class(there was about 28
of us) against me and told them vicious rumors about me.
Luckily 2 of my friends stuck by my side. In 8th grade
the rest of the class still pretty much ignored me.
Tenth and eleventh grades were okay because I was in a
new school and met new people. The bad side was I
flunked out both years due to the pressure of the
academics and transferred to public school.

7. Re: catholic school
memories - filburtgirl
1983

Ok, so
maybe my Catholic school memories aren't
exactly...er...pious.

I grew up in a neighborhood
that was 3 blocks from the local Catholic High School.
When me and my brother rode out bikes to Westside
Elementary in the mornings, the Catholic marching band
would be out there and they would make fun of us. And
there was no way to avoid the high school. You had to go
past it to get to Westside.

As we grew older, my
brother and his friends learned that there was a HUGE
drug/alchohol/smoking problem at the Catholic High
School. Whenever my brother and his friends would go
over there to skateboard, some Catholic kid would be
there asking them for drugs. It actually offended my bro
and his friends...the Catholic kids instantly thinking
that the sk8ers from "public" were drug
dealers.

So many people rant and rave about the
superiority of private schools, but looking at my
town...public was actually more in line than the
Catholic High School.

8. Re: catholic school
memories - barbell
1967

I was
stuck in Catholic school for only two years, fifth and
sixth grade, and hated practically every minute of it.
The basic education (three R's) was fairly good, but the
rest blew. The nuns were dried-up old buzzards who
really believed all that superstitious BS and most of
the kids were a bunch of goody two-shoes who narced to
the nuns on each other.

That and wearing a tie.
No wonder I now consider formal wear to be socks and a
shirt with a collar.

I have
been a product of the Catholic school system from
nursery school through graduate school.

I had the
opportunity to rub elbows in school with many
Protestant/Jewish kids whose parents saw Catholic
schools as places where discipline, values and academic
excellence were better than the local public schools and
the religious affiliation was a minor issue.

The
school made the practice of Catholicism in daily life
easier with regular Mass and confessions. Many of the
Protestant/Jewish kids participated to the greatest
extent allowed by Church law. For instance, a
Confirmation retreat coincided with several bar
mitzvahs.

For all you parents, consider Catholic
schools for your
kids.

1. Re: catholic school
memories - lilith
1976

It was
different in my school, the nuns who ran the school
grades 1 to 12 did not want children of different
religions. I was in 4th grade when the principal send a
letter to all the parents and said that if the kids were
not catholics they had to be taken out of the school
about 25% of the kids left. By the way all the nuns in
my school were from Spain.

10.Re: catholic school
memories - Hazywoods
1954

I
started public school with the 9th grade,how I wish my
parents had sent me to catholic high school.The years in
catholic school are among my best,only good
memories.I despised public school!!!!!!!!!!!!

11. Re: catholic school
memories - Private
Benjamin (Toni) 1982

It's
safe to say that I'm also a product of a private
catholic school education after having being placed in
an all girls catholic school from 6th grade to 12th
grade by my dad who thought that my going to school with
boys would be a distraction, even though I had just come
out of a very wonderful co-ed private episcopalian
elementary school, and not once where boys considered a
distraction. Sucky? Yes. Sometimes fun? Yes. But NEVER a
distraction---at least 95% of the time they weren't.
Either way, my grades didn't suffer. Anyways, I can
think of quite a lot of things that sucked about going
to a catholic school, especially going to one during
your impressionable teenage years, but my experience
wasn't all that bad.

Good: Well, this is a
partly good experience. In the beginning, when I was in
my 6th or 7th grades, my catholic school would always
take these very interesting field trips to Washington,
Lancaster, PA, etc, in these REALLY nice coach
buses. I'm telling you, we had the luxury of a clean
bathroom, tall cushioned seats that ever so slightly
reclined, air conditioning AND heating, and tinted
windows that helped to block out annoying UV rays. It
was perfect! I used to always look forward to the field
trips we had just so I could get to ride in those posh
coach buses the school always ordered for us. That
didn't last long though, since once we hit eighth grade,
the school got cheap and continued to order those tacky
yellow cheese buses with the leather seats that always
stuck to your skin, no heat, no air conditioning,
windows that would never work properly, and a bus driver
who always had some kind of attitude. It
sucked.

I think another advantage of my being in
private school was its total disassociation from
statewide school rules when it came to school vacations
as well as its openings and closings. What I loved about
going to catholic school was being able to have longer
vacations than my public school friends and being able
to start my summer vacation sooner than all my public
school friends. And on snow days...oh boy! What joy I
got out of telling my friends that my school closed down
because of the snow, while they still had to go because
THE STATE INSISTED!

I guess I should talk about
the educational benefits as well. I won't deny that the
classes offered at my catholic school were pretty top
quality. We had everything from various levels of Latin
to Marine Biology. Even though I hated the large amounts
of work they gave in catholic school, I did learn, and
its educational benefits helped to shape how I am today.
So I guess I should give catholic school its props on an
academic standpoint.

Bad: As mentioned in the
above paragraph, the ton of homework we were assigned
pretty much sucked. I think I experienced my first night
of all nighter homework when I was in eighth grade when
I was stuck doing an historical project for my world
history class in which a ten page paper was required. I
never enjoyed those nights when I knew that sleep would
be out of the question.

Of course, the main thing
that was bad about catholic school was the uniforms. We
wore grey wool kilts, white polo shirts and red blazers
with brown shoes. I don't think it was necessarily the
uniform that sucked as much. I mean, we were all very
capable of snazzing our uniforms up to our liking.
However, what sucked about the uniforms were the fact
that the school was so strict in enforcing its dress
code. The kilts had to be either at or below the knee;
we couldn't wear large outlandish earrings such as large
hoops; the heels of our shoes had to be flat, and what
really sent me over the top was when someone in
administration made a rule that we couldn't wear colored
bras underneath our polo shirts. They ALWAYS had to be
white. So after that, I pretty much got fed up with the
school and their uniform rules, and so did pretty much
all of the rest of my classmates. And we being the
degenerates that we were, never followed a single one of
their rules. I continued to wear my skirt short (nothing
distasteful or anything, but the length was definitely
kept ABOVE my knees), I wore my hoop earrings, I wore
shoes with a platform heel, I chewed gum, I wore red,
black, orange, polka dot, any color of bra other than
white, etc. It felt so liberating!

Another bad
thing about my catholic school was its lack of
diversity. The majority of the time I was there, I was
only one of about a handful of minority students
attending. I know for a fact that I could count up to 20
minority students that attended my school. 20 minorities
that made up a 400 person student body! I could count on
both hands the amount of black students who attended,
and I could only count on one hand the amount of
hispanics, asians, indians, middle eastern folk, etc,
that attended my old catholic school. So that was pretty
sad. We didn't really talk to much about racial
relations as a result. I mean the only other time that
we would even come close would be on Black History
Month, when our schools black student union would put on
some kind of assembly for the entire school. What was
funny to me was that the school had a Black Student
Union, however we hardly had enough black folks at the
school to even technically call it a "Black Student
Union". So towards my senior year, most people started
to call it the "Multicultural Awareness Union". My
school didn't just start to diversify until my senior
year, when I noticed a lot more African-American
students in the incoming 6th and 9th grades, which was
refreshing to see, but even sadder to see that it took
so long to do.

Ugly: I think the ugly thing
about catholic school, at least the one I attended, was
its tendancy to play favorites. I think...well actually
I know that the school I went to tended to favor those
with money, or those who would donate hefty amounts of
money to the school, and in return, the kids of the
parents who would donate the large amounts of money,
would get a dang near free education. They would hardly
have to pay any kind of tuition. It was ridiculous. Keep
in mind that they didn't do this overtly. I found this
out from the kids of the parents, some of whom where in
my class. So it really went to prove the theory that it
isn't always what you know, but who you know, if you
know what I mean.

12. Re: catholic school
memories - mrmatt
1957

Yes, I
survived catholic school, grade 1 through 9. Our parish
wasn't very rich, we didn't have a playground for
recess, we played in the parking lot next to the
church.Our principal was Sister Mercita, whe must
have been less than 5 feet tall, she seemed short even
to us kids.A catholic schoolboys friend was the
clip-on neck tie. On the way home from school just roll
it up and stuff it in your pocket.

1.Re: catholic school
memories - AstringOfPoloponies
1959

We had
recess in the parking lot next to the church, also. I
believe grades 1 - 6 had recess in the school
playgrounds and 7 & 8 th grades used the parking
lot.

I remember the clip on ties for the boys !
Haven't thought of them in decades ! They must have been
convenient for you guys. We girls wore pleated woolen
plaid skirts, white blouse, navy blue wool vest with an
emblem SFAS (name of school) on it.

13. Re: catholic school
memories - Bearcat
1944

I wish
I did. Never even got into a Catholic church (much less
a Catholic school) until shortly before I got married. I
have since gotten to know a number of girls who went to
both Catholic grade school and high school and find some
of the things that happened to be interesting. I'm still
trying to learn about the faith and find that it's
never-ending catch-up. If only I would have started
earlier.......

14. Re: catholic school
memories - Erinnez; Born Too
Late 1982

I only
went to Catholic school for one and a half years. I
gotta tell you, I hated it!

GOOD:My second
grade teacher, Mrs. Murray. We were lucky, we didn't get
nuns for every grade. I liked her because she was
nice.

BAD:Kevin Shorter. I don't really
remember much about him, but he was in my second and
third grade classes and bugged me. Third grade, he sat
behind me. I really can't remember what he used to do,
though. When I went back to public school, HE was there
at my school a year later (just not in the same class as
me, thank goodness!)

UGLY:The school
uniforms. The boys had to wear white shirts and gray
pants. Us girls ended up in plaid maroon jumpers. Yuck!

15. Re: catholic school
memories - mcdermnatr
1968

Well,
I didn't attend Catholic school but I did attend CCD
(catechism) at a Catholic school every Tuesday and
Thursday afternoon. By and large it was a good
experience but it had some down sides to it as well.
First of all, the school was affiliated with Nativity
Church, while my family attended St. Margaret Mary.
Consequently, Sister Cecile was constantly asking why I
wasn't in church on Sunday, when in fact I was, albeit
not the church she was at. The CCD was administrated by
one Mrs. Biscin, a rather bland old woman who was rather
unbending about the dress code (as it was CCD, we didn't
have to wear uniforms). My 5th grade CCD teacher was
Mrs. Tetarica and she was very devoted and caring. I
would talk with her long after class broke up about all
kinds of questions regarding heaven, hell, God and every
other Catholic mystery. There was a kindness and
spirituality about her that I seldom see in most people.
There was also a nun who was model material. Even in her
habit (they wore a rather modern one) she was very
beautiful. She played the guitar and piano rather well.
I had quite a crush on her, but I can't remember her
name. She was either Italian or Latina. I'm not sure.
Father Delaney was also a very good man, and I mean that
beyond a religious sense. He genuinely wanted to help
stop human suffering, spiritual and temporal. But he
could laugh and play right with us and joined us in
squirt gun fights.

As for the not so good side, I
would have to say that Mrs. Biscin was one of the worse
things about that place, which isn't too bad really.
It's not that she was mean or overbearing, she was just
bland and uninspiring. I mean, gospel means good news.
It would be wonderful if we could live forever in
paradise so long as we follow ten relatively simple
commandments and a few sacraments (seven, I think). Yet
she read about this covenant, this unending treasure,
this deity who loves and cares about the human race, as
if she were reading a mere public service announcement.
Saying the rosary was somewhat uncomfortable since our
class always arrived last and we would have to kneel on
the floor. Confession was...well, not so much bad as it
was funny. It was done in the janitor's storage room of
the chapel downstairs. Father Mc Hugh had a habit of
repeating one's sins and his voice was naturally loud so
we heard everything repeated back in his Irish
accent.

As for the ugly, well there was a Mr.
Hurley who looked like Jimmy Durante only not so
handsome. His arms were disproportionate and hung down
almost to his knees. He wasn't a bad guy, but he was
really funny to watch.

16. Re: catholic school
memories - Bradleyjoe
1974

I was
quite a talker in class, and was always being nailed for
it. One day, the teacher had enough, and sent me into
the hall. Sister Roberta would make the rounds during
each class hour, and have a word or two with the
students sent into the hall. I was standing near the
door, scared to death. Sister Roberta went up to another
child, well known for causing trouble in class, and
bounced his head off the locker behind him. She sent him
to the office, and turned to me and in a stern voice,
"Brad, do you understand?" I quietly nodded my head, and
she sent me back to class.

We also had weekly
locker inspections. Being influenced by my grandfather's
love of women, I had a picture of a woman in a bikini
taped to the back of my locker, usually hidden by my
coat. However, I missed one inspection day, and was
called to Sister Roberta's office the next day. She
asked me what the hell I was thinking having a picture
of a scantidly clad woman in my locker. I asked her why
she was snooping through my locker. I then picked my
self up off the floor, returned to class, and served 2
weeks of detention for objectifying women and talking
back to the principal.

17.Re: catholic school
memories - dollpartzcobain
1987

Catholic school for me was a f**kin NIGHTMARE! I
had to go from K-8TH GRADE! I had the exact same class
every year,all the same people.They all were "popular"
and thought they were greater than sliced bread.The
teachers were just teachers,no nuns(thank buddha!)and
EVERY one of them basically preached to us that we were
low life scum and God would punish us all for
partying.Thank Buddha I got out of there in the middle
of 8th grade and went to public school.There,I got my
confidence back when I met my best friend.I HATED
St.Francis De Sales,AWFUL place.I count my stars every
night I left there when I did...I would've died if I had
to graduate with them